The operator carefully aimed for an open fourth-floor window, clasped the
sill and yanked a hole in the worn gray-stoned dormitory atop a hill at
Greystone, once one of the world's most famous and infamous psychiatric
hospitals.

Surrounding the red-haired governor was a knot of dignitaries and aides
dressed in black topcoats, as if for a funeral; but they cheered as the facade
stones began thudding into the ground. Indeed it was something of a funeral,
as just minutes before Codey had indicated. Yet it also was the beginning, as
he'd also said, of a new age of care for the mentally ill in North Jersey.

It was a ceremony marking the demolition of the 103-year-old dormitory, at
208,000 square feet the second largest building on the Greystone Park
Psychiatric Hospital grounds. Closed in 1992, the dorm now is being reduced to
land fill and will be replaced by what Codey declared "a smaller, better and
safer" treatment building "that reflects a new focus on improving mental
health care across our state."

"Too long we've looked the other way," Codey said from the temporary
lectern on the wind-swept hillside as photographers snapped and reporters
scribbled. "Too long we've swept mental health under a rug. ... Not everyone
who is mentally ill can go back into society."

The subject is not new for the unpretentious Codey. In 1987, as a state
senator, he went undercover as an employee to expose poor conditions at the
now-closed Marlboro Psychiatric Hospital, and his wife, Mary Jo, suffered
postpartum depression after the birth of the couple's first son.

Last year, Codey replaced the disgraced Jim McGreevey as governor. Codey's
first "public" meeting was a breakfast with Greystone staff and patients, and
his announced first priority was to upgrade care for the mentally ill - the
only group, in fact, to get a raise in Codey's 2005 austerity budget. Thus
Tuesday marked what might be his signature moment as governor.

The entire project - demolition, design and construction - is pegged at
$190 million. The state Economic Development Authority, the Human Services and
Treasury departments, and the Health Care Financing Authority are partners in
the project. The timetable is for the new center to be ready in about two
years, long after Codey has left the governor's office (he is not running for
re-election).

Just before Codey ordered the crane operator to "Go!," he announced a
change in the plan for the new building. Instead of the 460 beds as originally
envisioned, it will contain 510 beds. This change, said the governor, was made
upon the recommendation of the Task Force on Mental Health, which cited
still-crowded conditions across the state. Greystone houses about 550
patients, their treatment centered at the huge main building in the middle of
the Greystone grounds, which will remain open.

Groundbreaking for the new building is to be this summer. The building will
concentrate programs and services and will have small dining rooms on each of
the 25-bed units.

Greystone was a showplace when it opened in 1876 as the State Lunatic
Asylum. It became its own village - featuring its own train station. It was
situated on 671 acres in what was then Hanover (later, Parsippany came to
include most of the grounds). Though it was built to house 600 North Jersey
patients, Greystone became horrendously crowded in the 1950s with almost 8,000
patients.

However in the 1970s the advent of psychiatric drugs persuaded politicians
that most of the inmates could be deinstitutionalized. A large hunk of
Greystone then became a ghost town, with many buildings gradually abandoned.
Two years ago the state sold 300 acres to Morris County for $1; the county has
demolished some of the buildings and dedicated its space as parkland.

County authorities have not finalized their plans, but say they foresee
passive and active recreation on their land, which will be adjacent to the new
state hospital.

Janet Monroe, chief executive officer at Greystone, spoke along with Codey
on Tuesday morning. She said the massive gray dorm "symbolized the old way of
treating the mentally ill." Another speaker, Terri Wilson, deputy commissioner
of the Human Services Department, hailed the plan for the new building but
ended with this wish: "If only we could knock down the stigma against mental
illness, this would be a better day."

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